Tourism Ireland has announced that it is doubling its marketing investment in China to €1 million, as well as doubling its marketing team to 12, in a bid to grow Chinese visitor numbers to Ireland to 200,000 by 2025.
"Happy To Announce"
The announcement was made by Tourism Minister Shane Ross, who said, “I am happy to announce that Tourism Ireland is doubling its marketing budget as part of its growth strategy in China, the world’s fastest growing outbound travel market. This investment was made possible as a result of the significant additional funding that I allocated to Tourism Ireland in Budget 2019. This will help us deliver on the ambitious targets set for tourism in the government’s 'Global Ireland 2025' initiative. This sets out how we will take Ireland’s global engagement to the next level over the coming years. As part of this, Tourism Ireland, with the support of Fáilte Ireland, will implement its market growth strategies in several new and emerging markets like China.
Targeting High-Spending Markets
Ross added, "Over the last number of years, Tourism Ireland’s strategy has focussed on targeting high-spending markets. The sustained increase in revenue from such markets has played a large part in our success in recent years and there is great potential for China to become another success story. Our tourism industry must be ready to react to the changing market profile of visitors to Ireland and, in this respect, Fáilte Ireland has developed a 'China Ready' Programme which aims to educate the industry about the opportunities available from that market."
"A Market Of Considerable Opportunity"
Meanwhile, Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons commented, "Our review of emerging tourism markets confirmed China as a market of considerable opportunity for us. China is the largest outbound travel market in the world and one that Tourism Ireland is committed to growing over the coming years. Last year, we welcomed an estimated 100,000 Chinese visitors to the island of Ireland. The introduction of direct flights to Dublin has been a major game-changer and offers a real opportunity for us. Our aim now is to capitalise on the changing travel patterns in China to grow Chinese visitor numbers to 200,000 by 2025 and, in particular, to grow the number of high end individual Chinese travellers to the island of Ireland."
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
